Why do we love?

today in english lesson, miss ho gave us a very thought-provoking question. actually she gave a variety of questions. What is the purpose of life? What is the purpose of studying? What if you have a serious illness just before your 'O's or 'A's?

it really got me thinking throughout the whole day. well, not for the first question. but for the rest. I'm speaking from a religious perspective. You don't have to agree with me. If you've read the 'purpose driven life' by rick warren, you would already know the purpose of life. There are basically 5 purposes in life. To worship God, to grow to become more like him, to have fellowship with our brothers and sisters in Christ, to serve him in ministries, and last but not least, to spread the good news that Jesus lives.

doing anything that glorifies God is considered worship. many people think that only singing songs is a form of worship. nah.. praying, clapping, jumping, kneeling, taking down sermon notes are all forms of worshipping him. Jesus has set an example for us to follow, so we will grow in his likeness. God gave us friends and family to support us and encourage us. god has given us gifts to serve him. the gifts are also to bless other people around you. We have to evangelise, because the great commision God gave us was to be his witnesses in Jeruselam, in all of judea and samaria and to the ends of the earth.

This life is just a rehearsel till we get to heaven. it is like a practice time. Its a temporary assignment. Earth is not our home. heaven is. when we die, we do not leave home. we go home.
adapted from 'The Purpose Driven Life' written by Rick Warren

studying. why do we study? is it for the sake of getting 8 A1s on the report card? our society has become so obsessed with winning. Now the cool mentality to have is 'winning is everything, you cant get 2nd. you gotta be the best in everything.' It has left no leeway for people to fail. in everything you do, you've gotta succeed. Singapore is fighting to be first in everything. 1st in terms of airport, port, security, technology.... the list goes on. Society has become this way, such that there is no room for failures. Once you fail something, that's it. You're out. everything gotta succeed. This is not the way! If there's no room for failure, then how will people learn to pick themselves up after they fall? they can't! there's this chinese saying," when you fall down, you must learnt to get up on your own." 'die dao le, zai pa qi lai.' i guess there's no need for this anymore because people are no longer given the chance to get up. once you're down, means you're out.

we have all conformed to the world such that we all want our certificates to look good. We study just for the certs so that we can secure a job in future. That mentality sucks. When i went to OBBD, after we got our certs, raffie(my instructor) said this thing that i'll never forget. "The certificate is not important. I can tear it up or burn it. So what? It's what you bring back that counts. If you didn't learn anything throughout this course, this certificate is useless."

we learn so that we can gain knowledge, and in the mean time to learn how to cope with stress. let me give you a real life example. today, i was supposed to go take the chemistry re-test because i failed, but it wasn't compulsory. ms liang said that she gave this re-test so that we could pass. but no matter what score you get, as long as it's a pass, she'll give you only a 20/40. what's the point? if you've learnt something, theres no need to get the score to look good. you sit the re-test just beacuse you want the report book to say,"chemistry-pass." that's why i didnt sit for the re-test.

we all take life for granted. ms ho shared with us her life story of how she nearly died before her 'A's. she asked us. what are you going to do if you cant sit for the 'A' level paper because you're seriously ill a few months before and missed 4 months of lessons? what will you do? will you go ahead and take it? or stay back another year? for me, my answer to her question was to get on ahead with life. because after which we guys got army for 2 years, so we can't waste anymore years. Then you'll ask. You havn't got any 'A' level certificate, what are you going to do? i say," well, at least i've learnt some stuff in J2 and as long as i remember, it's enough." i won't reveal what i will do yet, but whatever i do, i'll do it for the Lord. Perhaps go into the mission field and reap the harvest.

" The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few."

I LOVE GOD!